YOUNGSTOWN Mom faces endangering charges

Police received a report of a stench coming from the house.
YOUNGSTOWN -- Gina E. Braun of North Wendover Circle was arrested on two counts of child endangering after police found what they described as filthy conditions at her home, reports show.
Braun, 38, was cited Monday afternoon by John Bricker, a housing department inspector, on charges of creating noxious or offensive odors and failing to cut her grass.
Mahoning County Sheriff's Department detectives, acting on behalf of the county Children's Services Board, followed up with the child endangering charges, which were to be reviewed today by the city prosecutor's office.
The children, a 7-year-old girl and 10-year-old boy, were at the Wendover house over the weekend but are now with their father, the sheriff's department said. The father, who is seeking a divorce, told police he dropped them off Friday night and picked them up Sunday morning. Reports don't indicate where the father lives.
Braun was held in the Mahoning County jail overnight pending arraignment today in municipal court.
Stench
City police were first called to the home Saturday morning by a witness who observed mail and newspapers overflowing from the mailbox and the garage door half open and detected a strong odor emanating from the house. Finding the door from the garage to the house open and confirming the stench, police then entered the house and found it "in total disarray."
They then called Bricker, who took photos and red-tagged the house as unfit for human habitation, and Dave Nelson, humane agent with Animal Charity. Nelson found the home strewn with human and animal feces and removed three dogs from the residence, police said.
Braun called Bricker on Monday, asking for permission to enter her home. When she met him at the house she was served with the citations and arrested by the sheriff's department detectives, reports show.